Weapons
Light weapons Colt 1911 Late in 1906 the Army began to seek a 0.45 calibre semi-automatic pistol to replace the supply of revolvers that were in service. At the same time, John M. Browning had begun designing semi-automatic pistols for the Colt company, and began working on designs that would fit the requirements of the U.S Army. His inital designs were adopted under the M1911 xxxx, and were later massproducted in the millions by Colt, Remington-UMC, Savage, Springfield Armoury, and other companies. Today the 1911 is argubly the most popular pistol in the world. Enfield .38 Chambered for 6 rounds of .38/200, or .38xxx, the Enfield .38 was a "break-top" revolver based on a scaled-down version of the Webley Mark 6. The Enfield .38 was made by the Royal Small Arma Factory and Albion Motors. Parabellum 08 (Luger Parabellum P08) Named as part of a Latin saying. Si vis pacem para bellum, which means 'If you want peace, prepare for war'. The German Luger Parabellum was adopted by the German Army in 1906 and saw quite a bit of service during World War II. The Germans Navy had adopted the Luger Parabellum some time earlier. P08S: The P08's silenced variant. Germany was developing silencers for their weapons, and tested them in secret night-time operations in the War. Only a few of these silencers were made, so silenced German weapons are mystical. In the game the P08S arrives with the Sabre Squadron mission pack, so this pistol can only be encountered on the new maps (Only in Multiplayer). Taisho 14 Invented by general Kijiro Nambu, during the reign of the Taisho emperor Yoshihito. The Taisho 14 visually resembles the Luger Parabellum, though its inner workings are quite different. The Taisho 14 was invented around 1925 in order to replace a previous pistol by general Kirgio Nambu and was used by the Japanese Army as their standard side arm during World War 2, as well as on previous Southeast Asian campaigns. Unfortunatly the ammunition used by Taisho is arguably inferior to that used by the sidearms of the other major powers at the time of WOrld War II. Tokarev (Tokarev TT-33) The TT-33 was a modification done in 1933 on the TT, or Tokarev Tula, which was manufactured in 1930. With the locking mechanism relativly similar to the 1911, the TT-33 is a recoil-operated, locked breech pistol. The Tokarev TT-33 was the primary sidearm of the USSR, and was manufactured by many eastern block countries including China, Yugoslavia, and North Korea. German Fighting Knife When silent operations are absolutley critical, or when you simply run out of ammunition, the combat knife can be your best friend. Knives were used in both, for hand-to-hand combat, and for slitting the throats of unsuspecting people when the combatant was attempting to be silent. Fairbairn-Sykes Dagger When silent operations are absolutley critical, or when you simply run out of ammunition, the combat knife can be your best friend. Knives were used in both, for hand-to-hand combat, and for slitting the throats of unsuspecting people when the combatant was attempting to be silent. Medium Weapons Arisaka Meiji 38 From 1905 to the beginning of World War II, when it was discontinued in 1940 in favour of the Type 99, the bolt action Arisaka Meiji was the standard Japanese rifle. Unfortunatley, however, production shortages of the Type 99 caused the Arisaka Meiji to remain in service until the end of the war. Due to an metal dust cover over the bolt, the operation of the Meriji was both noisy and prone to clogging. That said, while the Arisaka Meiji was not as powerful as some of the rifles used by the allied nations, the rifle was both long and it's action was based upon the Mauser design, which meant that it had very little recoil and was very accurate. De Lisle Commando Carbine When World War II started, silenced weaponry was an extreme rarity. As a result, in 1942, work was begun on the De Lisle Carbine, a totally silent rifle for use in covert operations. While there were initially several competing designs of the De Lisle, a version chambered in 0.45 ACP that used the barrel and magazine of a Colt M191A1 and the stock and action of the Lee Enfield #3 Mk I rifle was eventually used. Karabiner 98K The Karabiner 98K is a manually-operated magazine fed bolt-action rifle. The magazine of the Karabiner 98K was a two-row, five-round, internal box magazine with a detachable floor plate that could be loaded by stripper clips, or by filling the magazine one round at a time manually. The Karabiner 98K was a redesign of the original Karabiner 98 that was done in 1936, and the Karabiner 98K stayed in production until 1945. Enfield Mk.4 (Lee-Enfield MK 4) The Lee-Enfield MK.4 was an evolution of the original Lee-Enfield rifle from before WWI. Many improvments were made, and in 1941 the Lee Enfield MK 4 were trained so vigorously that they were capable of firing 30 aimed shots per minute, which was so fast that some German soldiers would think that they under automatic weapons fire. There was a sniper version of the Enfield MK 4 made during WWII that was equipped with detachable optical scope mounts that were mounted to the left side of the receiver. M1 Garand The M1 Garand was adopted on January 8th, 1936 by the US Army. Unfortunatly, the M1 Garand experienced an unjustified level of jamming early on in production and, in 1939, the gun underwent a redesign to remedy the issue. Almost all of the original M1 Garand rifles were rebuild to accomodate the redesign, and an additional estimated 4 million rifles were produced during WWII. Other thanthe sniper varaitinos of the M1 Garand, which had a sniper's scope attached, little modification was actually done to the rifle in 1945, after its inital redesign. Springfield (M1903A3 / M1903A4 Springfield) While the 1903 was initally a product of the Springfield Armoury, which started design work in 1900, it was not until many variantions later that Remington Arms was commissioned with remanufacturing the 1903, and they releases the M1903A3 in 1942. The M1903A4 was released shortly thereafter, having its iron sights replaced with M73B1 2.6X telescopic optical sights, and afterward the M1903A4 remained in service until the late 1960s. M1 Carbine In 1938 the US Army requested a more compact shoulder arm to replace handguns for their non-combat troops behind the line. Effectively the goal was to have a weapon that would be easier to train soldiers to fire accurately than the M191, while still shooting a medium-calibre round. Unfortunatley, however, the round that was developed for the M1 Carbine was a round-nosed bullet that limited its effectiveness to approximately 200 meters, and severely limited its lethability, despite having twice the muzzle veocity as a 0.45 ACP round that was shot by the 1911. At an extended range the M1 Carbine was sometimes unable to penetrate even thick winter uniforms. That said, due to its size, the M1 Carbine worked excellently in jungle conditions, and because it could be fitted with large-capacity detachable magazines it was capable of a high rate of fire. Mosin-Nagant (Mosin-Nagant M1891/30) The Mosin-Nagant rifle, also known as the Vintovks Mosina, was developed by combining two competing designs from a USSR army captain Mosin and a Belgian designer Nagant. The final design was an amalgamation of both designs. The original Mosin-Nagant was originally developed in 1891 and, between then and 1944 the Mosin-Nagant went through several re-designs, and the variety that was used both for the infantry and as the sniper rifle was known as the M1891/30, and was produced in 1930. Like the M1 Garand, the Mosin-Nagant is an internal-magazine clip-fed rifle. MP 40 The MP-40, developed in 1940, was a relatively simplistic blowback-operated, fully automatic only submachine gun, and was a refinement on the MP-38. One of the better features of the MP-40 was a mechanism that reduced the rate of fire, which helped the operator maintain control of the weapon when firing. The only severe drawback to the MP-40 was the lack of a hand guard on the front, which could result in the operator burning their hands. Spagin (PPSh-41G Spagin) Produced in numbers, totalling more than 6 million in all, the PPSh-41 was on of the primary weapons, submachine gun or otherwise, of the Soviet troops during WWII. The PPSh-41 is a blowback operated selective-fire automatic rifle. Both accurate and having a relatively long range, when compared with other submachine guns. The PPSh-41 was developed by Georgy Spagin, and, as a result, the PPSh-41 is also often referred to as the Shpagin. In the end the PPSh-41 was so popular that the design was exported to numerous countries, as well as was copied by the Chinese. M1 Thompson Initally the Thompson submachine gun appeared in 1919 and, since then, the weapon has undergone numerous revisions. One of the things that sets the Thompson apart from other submachine guns is that while most are made to be as inexpensive as possible, the Thompson was designed to be a truly high-quality weapon. That said, it has a relatively short effective range, was expensive to manufacture, and weighted more than others, such as the Sten Gun. Fortunately, however, the Thompson used a larger, more powerful round, the 0.45 ACP as opposed to other submachine guns used during WWII. PPS - 1943 The PPS-43 is a lightweight fully automatic-only blow-back submachine gun that is effective to approximately 200 meters. The addition of a folding metallic butt stock allows the PPS-43 to further reduce its size for transport or when carried by a soldier. The PPS-43 started as an answer to the problems that were posed by the PPSh-41, specifically the size and weight of the weapon. The PPS-43 also had a reduced rate of fire, as compared to the PPSh-41, which made managing it easier. Sten gun Mk. 2 Incredibly simple and easy to mass produce, the Sten Gun Mk. 2 cost only about $6 to manufacture. Fortunately, however, the 9mm round and relatively slow rate of fire - approximately 550 ronds per minute - provided an exceptional amount of stability. The only serious drawback of the Sten gun was that the effective range was only slightly less than 100 meters. Nonetheless, so popular was the Sten Mk2 design that more than 4 million were produced. Sten gun Mk. 2 (with silencer) The Sten Gun Mk. 2 with silencer is effectively the same as the Sten Gun Mk. 2, with the exception that it slows the muzzle velocity to subsonic speeds and slightly reduces the rate of fire of the weapon, while greatly reducing the noise that the gun puts out. Heavy Weapons Requiring both hands to hold, the heavy weapons available to soldiers include various light machine guns, anti-tank weapons, and one of the first assault rifles ever produced. Light machine guns, while significantly heavier than submachine guns, are able to fire rounds that are significantly more powerful, more like the rounds that are often fired from the various bolt-action rifles, often with significantly more rounds in each magazine. Due to their rate of fire, and the power of each round, light machine guns often need to be fired from the prone position, steadied by a small frontal bipod. The anti-tank weaponry available consists of the standard issue U.S. M1 Bazooka and the German Panzerfaust. As with the light machine guns, shoulder-launched anti-tank weaponry is quite heavy, especially in the case of the Panzerfaust, which is a one-shot weapon. Nonetheless, the damage that anti-tank waeponry is capable of causing is far greater than the damage caused by other heavy weaponry. Last but not least, the one true assault rifle availalbe is the German MP-44, which came out shortly after a Soviet variant made by Fedorov, and the German MP-43. As with all assault rifles, the MP-44 is designed as a COB (Close Quarter Battle) weapon, and uses rounds more powerful than most submachine gun, yet still less powerful than many rifle rounds. BAR (BAR M1918) Manufactured near the end of WW1, the Browning Automatic Rifle, or BAR, was originally intended to be carried and fired much like the M1 Garand, that is, from the shoulder or from the hip, while delivering much more firepower. Unfortunately, due to the weight being twice as heavy as an M1 Garand, the BAR had to be fitted with a bipod, and by the time WWII rolled around it proved to be a capable light machine gun. The BAR was used for many years and, in the end, ceased to be used only because it could not be made to work adequately with new ammunition. Bren Gun The BREN is a light machinegun that was equipped with 30-round magazines, through it was common to only load 28 rounds to ease tension on the springs. Those who carried a BREN gun on the front lines also carried with them a very specialized kit to ensure that the BREN gun was kept in operation. The kit would contain spare parts and other mainteance equipment. Originally the BREN gun was of Czechoslovakian manufacture. Degtyarev DP 1928 Developed late in 1927, with production starting shortly therafter, the Degtyarev DP 1928 was the standard light machine gun for the Soviet Army during WWII. Thanks to a tripod that was released for the Degtyarev DP 1928, it was also to be used as an antiaircraft gun. ZB26 The ZB26 was originally of Czech design, though the design was considered so good that it ended up being purchased by the British and was used as the template for the British BREN gun, and later for the Type 96 Japanese light machine gun as well. The ZB26 was so similar to the BREN gun that it has even been referred to as the first BREN gun. MP44 The world's first assault rifle, the MP 44 was developed in Germany for use in WWII. The assault rifle started as a combination of submachine guns, light machine guns, and bolt action rifles, giving as many of the advantages of all three while fitting into a copact form factor that would work out well during CQB, or close quarter battles. While the rounds that it fires are not as powerful as some of the large rifle rounds, they are significantly more powerful than pistol cartridges. The only serious weakness of the MP 44 was the weight and strength of the joint where the stock attached. Panzerfaust 60 Created as a replacement to the Panzerfaust 30, which had a limit of 30 meters, the Panzerfaust 60, with an effective range of 60 meters, is the next step in the chain of several version of the Panzerfaust, each with an ever-increasing range. The Panzerfaust 60 was the most widely produced version of the Panzerfaust, and, as with the Panzerfaust 30, the Panzerfaust 60 was a single-use weapon. Unfortunately, due to the relatively large jet of flame that shot out of the back o the Panzerfaust 60, the person firing it, and anyone else around, had to be quite careful or they could be burned alive. M1 Bazooka Initially the ordiance for the Bazooka came about due to some shaped charges that were acquired from the Swiss in the 1930s. After it was determinated that they would not work well as grenades, a Colonel named Skinner devised a tube-shaped delivery system that was named after an odd-shaped trombone played by Bob Burns. After trials and tests, the Rocket Launcher M1, or M1 Bazooka, began manufacture in 1941 and was used in WWII as the standard anti-tank weapon of the U.S.A.